United Kingdom Lehár, The Merry Widow: Soloists, The Chorus of The Merry Widow and Orchestra of Scottish Opera / Stuart Stratford (conductor). Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 4.5.2025. (GT)
This new staging of Franz Lehár’s popular operetta is a co-production of Scottish Opera with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park, and this new English version by John Savourin and David Eaton places the scenes in Manhattan and Sicily in the 1950s. As Savournin explains, ‘The story of The Merry Widow is built around a displaced couple – originally, the fictitious Pontevedians in Paris – so the world of Italian-American Mafia families finding their place in New York felt like a great modern-day comparison.’ So instead of Baron Zeta, we have Don Zeta, and Danilo is his consigliere, while Valencienne is Valentina and Don Zeta’s wife.
This staging transported us to the Manhattan home of Don Zeta – the Mafia godfather, where the Don has his rivals in the Russian Mafiosi, and as the whole show unravels, it becomes a take-off of US films such as The Godfather, I Like It Hot, and Cabaret, Valentina is a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like, while other doppelgängers from Hollywood gangster movies appear throughout the evening. The opening scene of Act I is in Don Zeta’s penthouse looking onto New York skyscrapers, where the Don’s birthday party is in full swing, but the fun atmosphere is broken by mobsters carrying Tommy guns and menacingly suited men walking across the stage. This is all quickly forgotten by the richly romantic soulful singing of ‘Parisian’ music in Valentina and Camille’s opening duet in opéra bouffe style, set against the mazurka-like songs by Hanna and Zeta. The colourfully performed csárdás delightfully enhanced the ‘Vilja’ romance. The sharp contrasts of European folk music were hard to blend with the backdrop of mafia mobsters, and the ugly vulgarity of the spoken dialogues. The quickly moving scenes and the often comic characterisations allowed one to forget the stylistic imbalance of the production.
In Act II, the scene is a country house in Sicily surrounded by lemon trees. Danilo’s aria ‘There once was a haughty princess’ was finely executed both in character and vocally. Another highlight was the septet which was superbly sung and performed. The musical interlude between Acts II and III was magically portrayed, allowing the audience to see the scenes moved around from Hanna’s home transformed into Maxim’s cabaret. Act III was set in Hanna’s New York home transformed into Maxim’s, yet it was all rather tasteless, with dancers rather sexily attired, lending the appearance more like a bordello than a nightclub. The famous waltz by Hanna and Danilo at the climax was bewitchingly performed with that tantalising edge between romance and lust which Lehár superbly depicted.
The new English language version by John Savournin distracted one from the rhythms of Lehár’s score and lost the nuances of the music, this was disappointing, yet the biggest problem was the balance between the pit orchestra and the singing which was often drowned out by the brass or the woodwind group. Several arias in Act I were hindered by this imbalance, though wasn’t a distraction afterwards.
Of the singers, the finest performances were the Valentina of Rhian Lois, the Hanna of Paula Sides and the Danilo of Alex Otterburn, while the Don Zeta of Henry Waddington was excellent in characterisation and voice, a disappointment was the Camille de Rosillon of William Morgan who appeared to be out of sorts. Of the secondary singers, I was especially impressed again by Rosie Lavery as Paulina, her soprano is bright and vibrant with superb characterisation enhancing her part. I recall her excellent performances at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s productions of Idomeneo and Cendrillon in recent years. She has managed to step very well into professional world of opera.
The costumes were appropriate, swaying between those gaudy scenes at Maxim’s, and the opening scenes with the Manhattan mafia mobsters and their girls dressed in the post-war styles popular at the time.
Ultimately, Stuart Stratford and his orchestra brought Lehár’s lively and rich score to life wonderfully. Notable were the solo contributions by the leader of the violins Anthony Moffat and Martin Storey on the cello. Throughout the chorus were stunning, bringing out all the vibrancy of the musical drama – under the direction of Susannah Wapshott. The production – despite its weaknesses – was marvellously entertaining, as it should be; the singing was generally excellent and matched by the choreography of Kally Lloyd-Jones which helped bring out all the rib-tickling moments, especially in the dancing and stage movement where we saw corpses suddenly coming alive and dancing. The sets and costumes from takis and Lise Bondu were in the style of the 1950s while the skirts of the dancers at Maxim’s were a little awkward in their tininess. Ben Pickersgill’s lighting was excellent bringing suitable atmosphere to the scenes at Maxim’s while giving plenty of sun to Hanna’s Sicilian country home in Act II.
This production tours to Inverness, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh before moving south to Holland Park and D’Oyly Carte Opera in June. This was a very entertaining and enjoyable production and is sure to be another success for everyone involved. Details of future performances here.
Gregor Tassie
Production:
Director – John Savournin
Designer – takis
Lighting designer – Ben Pickersgill
Choreographer – Kally Lloyd-Jones
Associate designer – Lise Bondu
Cast:
Hanna Glawari – Paula Sides
Danilo – Alex Otterburn
Don Zeta – Henry Waddington
Valentina – Rhian Lois
Camille de Rosillon – William Morgan
Nicky Negus – Matthew Kellett
Mr Kromow – Matthew Siveter
Olga – Amy J Payne
Mr Bogdanovitch – Jonathan Forbes Kennedy
Sylvia – Ellie Neate
Sam Briochi – Connor James Smith
Carmelo Cascada – Christopher Nairne
Mr Pritischitsch – Francis Church
Paulina – Rosie Lavery